Three weeks after climbing into the national elite, the men's tennis team showed Florida it enjoys the view from the top and intends to stay there.
The 10th-ranked Blue Devils, who knocked off No. 2 Georgia and No. 5 Texas three weeks ago at the National Indoors, continued their blistering run through the top teams in the country by handing No. 13 and previously undefeated Florida (8-1) a 4-3 loss yesterday at the Chapel Hill Tennis Club.
With his team ahead 3-2 and his match with Justin O'Neal tied 3-3 in the third set, senior Dmitry Muzyka broke serve and captured his next two service games to clinch the victory for the Blue Devils (5-2).
"I knew we can play with anyone in the country," coach Jay Lapidus said. "The thing is we still haven't played with our full lineup yet. If we're all playing well and healthy, I'm a little frightened how good we can be. If we can get everybody healthy and playing 100 percent, I'm excited to see what we can do."
The Duke win came despite an elbow injury that limited Pedro Escudero's effectiveness at No. 1 doubles and forced him out of singles action. In Escudero's absence, Muzyka stepped into the No. 2 singles slot usually occupied by Escudero and captured the match's deciding point.
"We're so deep," Lapidus said. "We could have two, three or four injuries and it's sort of like a basketball team, we can pull people off the bench. We're just really strong, and it helps everybody."
While Escudero was sidelined with an injury, sophomore Ramsey Smith returned from a broken ankle and saw his first match action since November. Although Smith dropped his match at No. 3 singles in three sets, he helped to set the tone of the match earlier with a crucial win at No. 3 doubles to give Duke the doubles point.
The Gators' tandem of O'Neal and Alex Hur served for the match and the doubles point at 7-6 against Smith and Andres Pedroso. But Smith and Pedroso took the next three games to give Duke the doubles point.
"The doubles was key-it started the momentum going," Smith said. "We played a bad service game at six-all. Then, we just put a couple of very good returns there and ended up breaking them. After that, we got the momentum."
The win at doubles continues the recent trend of Duke dominance at doubles. After mixing and matching all three doubles teams last season, Lapidus settled on one lineup this year, and it's worked like a charm.
"I'm just really confident in our doubles this year," he said. "With the doubles lineup we're currently using, we haven't lost a point. The thing is we're so strong, and we have three teams that are pretty much equally strong. I just don't think there's much people can do to us in doubles."
Riding on the momentum of the doubles win, Porter Jones and Marko Cerenko took their matches at No. 5 and 6 singles with relative ease in straight sets.
When the new tennis polls are released today, Lapidus expects Duke to be ranked fourth in the country, which would be its highest ranking since 1993. By collecting their fourth win of the season against a ranked opponent, the Blue Devils have catapulted themselves into the thick of the national championship picture.
"[National Indoors] really gave us a lot of confidence," Smith said. "Our doubles have improved a ton since last year. That's a key to get us going on the right foot. All of us have a lot of confidence and think that we can go all the way if we stay healthy and keep playing together as a team."
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